Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: The Brilliant Wedding Cars And Other Oddities Of Jinma Auto & Soar Auto

Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Jinma Auto / Soar, famous for their gigantic Rolls-Royce ‘wedding cars’. But there was more, much more!

Jinma (金马) means Golden Horse. The brand was owned by a company called Qingdao Shengma Classic Car Co., Ltd. (青岛圣马老爷车有限公司). Designation was QJM. In 2001, the company changed name to Qingdao Suo’er Automobile Co., Ltd. (青岛索尔汽车有限公司). This was abbreviated to  Soar Automobile (索尔汽车), and that is the name they are best known for. In that same year, the Jinma brand name was replaced with the Soar name.

The Introduction

Jinma hood ornament, depicting a winged golden horse.

In 2001, the company said they had 278 employees including “68 technical workers”. They had a factory area of 30.000 square meters and a capital of 12 million yuan. Production capacity was 1000 cars per year.

Soar Automobile was, and is, because they still exists, a so called ‘specialty vehicle maker’, a car maker that builds specialized vehicles based on cars by other car makers. In China, this can range from ambulances to police cars to hearses to all sorts of construction and transportation vehicles to VIP buses to garbage trucks. Soar literally made dozens of different specialty vehicles, some based on buses, some on trucks, other on truck trailers, and yet others on large vans.

For this article, we only look at the Jinma and Soar-branded passenger cars, including the wedding cars and a strange sedan conversion. Soar Automobile also sold a series of interesting funeral cars under the original Shengma name. I will show you these cars in a separate article.

In the 1990s and early 2000’s, the term ‘wedding car’ had a somewhat different meaning in China than elsewhere. The term was applied for vehicles that were rented for weddings, so far so normal, but the vehicles themselves were not normal. They were also not real. Instead, they were ‘inspired by’ real vehicles, mainly by Rolls-Royce. These cars were also refered to as “imitation antique craft cars” (部仿古工艺车), “grandfathers cars” (老爷车. As in: old timers) or “ceremonial cars (礼仪车).

Several Chinese car makers made such wedding cars, often based on the chassis of an SUV or a pickup truck. There would be lots of chrome and classic looks, with outlandish grilles and wheels. Folks loved them, and Jinma became a leading wedding car maker. Nowadays, with incomes up, many Chinese can afford to rent a real wedding car for the happiest day of their lives, so the role of the original wedding car makers has diminished but they are not completely gone yet. Soar made two series of large wedding cars; both inspired by Rolls-Royce. At the same time, the company also continued to build all sorts of specialty vehicles. In the mid-2000’s, Soar stopped making wedding cars, but many of the newer ones are still around.

The Early wedding Cars

Jinma, as every other Chinese automaker, was very good in making many variants of their great vehicles. They had four-door, four-door extended, four-door more extended, and a two-door.

Four-door cars

The early four-door cars looked brilliant, over the top, and almost cartoonesque. It was a low with enormous wheel arches, a big shiny grille, four horns in front of the grille, huge bumpers, a straight-up windscreen, a ‘parade bar’ on the B-pillar. It was based on a Great Wall pickup truck platform and powered by a 2.2 liter 491QE Great Wall engine.

There were two versions: a short-wheelbase 4-person car designated QJM5022XY and a long-wheelbase 6-person car designated QJM5022XL. Size: 5500/1750/1600. Weight was 1930 kilo, fuel consumption 7.8 liter per 100 kilometers, and top speed a dangerous 120 km/h.

The QJM5022XL was a meter longer: 6500/1750/1700. It weighted 2180 kilo and drank 8.3 liters per 100 kilometers. The canvas roof was white and fully removable. With the roof came plastic side windows. It is, however, very rare to see these with the roof on. The point was to be seen, so the roof was mostly left in the garage.

Jinma used various wheel covers on the QJM5022, but the black examples on this car seem not-factory.

I saw this beautiful white example, with a red interior, at the Dalian Classic Car Museum, now sadly closed. It was in reasonable shape and staff told me the museum often rented it out for weddings!

The Jinma hood ornament was massive, made of metal or copper. There is a second smaller triangular ornament behind the horse.

The rear lights look just like the rear lights of a Hongqi CA770. So either Jinma got their hands on some old stock or they copied the lights. The luggage rack is very hip, with brown belts!

A somewhat battered all-red car, with a driver who looks very cold.

Ready for the party! With flags and pink balloons, and a Volkswagen wheel cover at the front.

This one has a faux spare wheel on the back instead of a luggage rack.

Jinma Taxi

Jinma cars were used as taxi’s too! In 1998, the city of Qingdao established a fleet of 30 Jinma taxi’s, aimed at tourists. The drivers were dressed in a tuxedo and white gloves. The taxi’s were operated by Jiaoyun Group, a local-state owned company. They took tourists to popular beach spots, they could be booked for a tour around the city, and they could be booked as wedding cars for locals and tourists alike.

This seems another taxi. It has the typical taxi-company script on the doors but it has basic steel wheels instead of fancy wheel covers. This model was made in 2000.

A Jinma in a sports stadium, with two singers performing, standing in the rear compartment. The car is covered with fake plants and leaves, including sunflowers for headlights.

The 6.5 meter long-wheelbase version.

A black example seen in the Beijing Classic Car Museum (since renovated). It has the same basic design but with a new grille and ‘classic’ multi spoke wheels. It doesn’t have the horns but it does have two extra lights on the bumper. The interior was red with a brown convertible roof. The mirror stalks are in gold.

This is a very unique example, in the same museum. It is the same basic car as the QJM5022 but with a more streamlined design. The arches are aerodynamic with integrated headlights. The grille is rounded too, with chromed horizontal bars. It was parked in a storage area of the museum and sadly it isn’t on display.

The most extreme variant of the QJM5022 was seen by Erik in Beijing in the late 1990’s. It is painted in pink-white with gold ornaments on the doors and bonnet. There is a fixed roof and fixed doors, and a brown leather interior.

The QJM5022TYN6 was the successor of the QJM5022XY/XL. Design was more comprehensive. It has simpler wheel arches and a Rolls-Royce style grille. The ‘spare wheel’ is fake, and not a very good one, as it is much larger than the real wheels. Engine was still the 491QE. Size: 5350/1750/1780, with a 3380 wheelbase and a curb weight of 1540 kilo. Top speed was claimed to be 90 km/h, strangely much slower than the larger and heavier QJM5022XY/XL.

With four horns at the front.

With two non-Chinese retro-dressed ladies. It has a purple interior and cool car-club UK-style shield-badges on the grille.

Official factory pic.

A very stately example in a shopping mall, with a beige interior and a two-tone paint job.

A red car with super cool alloy sporty wheels, and with the roof installed, and with black lights on the bumper.

Two door cars

Jinma also made a two-door version, with four seats. It looked very nice, and very British. The mirrors were of a simpler design compared to the dour-door cars. Designation was QJM5010YL. It had a very different engine; a 1 liter China-made Suzuki F8A462-1A, good for a 100 km/h top speed. Even though it was a roadster, it wasn’t small: 5050/1630/1430.

The video was posted on a vlog about classic cars. The writer describes the vehicle as a “70-years old Mercedes-Benz”, capable of a 200 km/h top speed.

With a purple interior.

A battered example with a Mercedes-Benz star on the grille.

This one was offered on a second-hand website years ago. The add is no longer online but fortunately I saved the photos.

It has very basic wheel covers, a brown interior, and a green soft top.

I saw this one in Longtanhu Park in Beijing in 2004. It served as a photo-op location with lots of folks taking pictures standing in front of it. The car was permanently on stands.

The Sports Cars

Jinma also developed several ‘sports cars’. These were wedding cars too, with happy couples renting these for wedding photos and/or to arrive in style on a post-wedding party.

The design was very ‘classic’ again, with large grilles, fenders, and big lights and horns. There was a coupe with a somewhat more streamlined design and a roadster with a straight-up grille. The coupe has classy white-wall tires.

This appears to be the same kind of car as the vehicle seen on the left on the first photo. The characters say: “老莫” 侃车, Laomo Kanche. The first part likely is a name for the vehicle, the second part is best translated as “pleasant car”. The grille design is similar as on the pink QJM5022 .

The roadster had English-language ‘Golden Horse’ lettering on the grille.

This is a later car, a nice little roadster clearly inspired by Morgan. It has sporty doors and two tiny seats. Design is surprisingly professional, with the lights neatly integrated in the fenders.

There was one in the Beijing Classic Car Museum, fitted with a soft top and side windows. It was described as a “1936 Morgan”. The owner of the museum, who knows lots about cars, must know this ain’t a Morgan but a Jinma. Who not saying so? Anyway, his is the greatest car museum in China, so I won’t hold it against him.

The second ornament looks similar to the triangular ornament on the Jinan Jinma.

The lights are very racy, and it even has a second-brake light above the spare wheel, and a small fog light  and a reverse light under the bumper.

The soar Rolls-Royce

This is likely Soar’s most famous car; a gigantic ultra long wheelbase wedding car, inspired a lot by the 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom. Initially, these were branded Jinma, but later on the branding changed to Soar.

Design was very professional compared to the earlier cars. It was available with any color, one tone or two tone. The grille was again gigantic and it was further sexed up with lots of chrome and other shiny stuff. It was based on a Great Wall chassis including a new engine: a 127 hp 2.4 liter Shenyang-Mitsubishi 4G64S4M motor. This engine was used by Great Wall at the time. Gearbox was a 5-speed manual. Top speed was 90 kilometers per hour.

Designation was QJM5037. It was huge: 6900/1920/1750, with a 4800 mm wheelbase. The QJM5037 could legally carry 9 passengers and a driver. Curb weight was a massive 2090 kilo. Base price started around 250.000 yuan.

This was the text on Soar’s old English-language website: “This luxury car in classic-style sets the advantages of European and American classic old car, noble and elegant.  It fills the blank of domestic market in special use for etiquette car. It adapts to wedding, celebration occasions, hotel service and car-renting, etc.”

Photos of the Soar factory, showing several bodies and complete cars under construction. These images were on Soar’s old website.

The interior of the QJM5037 was very neat, with lots of classy wood and beige leather. There was a large 3-spoke steering wheel, four large dials in the center, a radio unit, and air vents on each side. The transmission lever looks tiny.

This is a newer example seen by Richard in Jinan. License plate is likely fake, ‘6’ is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture, and wedding cars often have a six in their plates.

The hood ornament is a total Rolls-Royce copy. The Soar badge also looks very Roller-like. Many buyers changed to Soar badge for a Rolls-Royce badge.

The interior of the QJM5037 was updated once; it got a new dashboard with two large dials in front of the wheel, with another three dials in the center. It had an infotainment system in the center stack and ‘classics’ lettering on the right side of the dash. The upholstery quality had improved a lot.

A majestic extended example in black, from a wedding company in Xiantao City, Hubei Province. Interestingly, this company also rents out a real Roll Royce, albeit a lowly Ghost. Considering the sheer number of photos and spots available, it seems that Soar made quite a lot of these limousines.

A white car seen by Antoine in Shanghai. It was used by the Four Seasons Hotel to ferry guests from the airport and around town.

This one had the Rolls-Royce badge.

Creamy white interior perfect for a wedding car.

Soar made several pink cars as well, including this one with a white-pink two-tone body.

The interior of the party compartment. Note how high the roof is!

Short wheelbase version

Soar also developed a short-wheelbase version of the QJM5037. It did not get a separate designation. Engine was the same 2.4 again. The beige car on the factory photos looks properly 1960’s, with small but far tires and sporty wheels.

It was a lot shorter than the long-wheelbase car, and proportions were much better.

Erik saw a white short-wheelbase car at the Beijing Auto Show in 2008. The wheels are larger on this one, with classic wheel covers, making it look like lot more like a real Rolls-Royce.

It seems about 5.5 meters meters long. Soar likely made very few of these. The beige and the white one are the only ones I know about.

The soar Brilliance-based sedan

In the mid-2000’s Soar developed a new kind of ‘modern’ wedding car. It was based on the Brilliance BS6 sedan. From the A-pillar forward it was completely redesigned. The front fenders, bonnet, and front were all new.

The bonnet was raised too. Most eye catching was the ultra large and ultra shiny grille, flanked by lots of rounded body work and large round headlights.

From the A-pillar rearwards, design was unchanged, and Soar even kept the Brilliance alloys.

The rear had new rear light visors and an SR Soar badge. The Brilliance BS4 was available with several engines, including the same 2.4 liter Shenyang-Mitsubishi unit that Soar had in the QJM5037, so it seems likely that Soar went for this engine again.

Soar made only a handful of these odd creations. This purple car was seen on a car market, with an original BS6 on the background, on the right.

A light blue car, looking very hip for a Soar. The front overhang is enormous, and there seems to be nothing behind that big grille.

The SR logo is very arty.

And those were the wedding cars of Jinma and Soar! I will update this article whenever new cars or better photos turn up.

Sources: b2b, NicPic, ChinaCar, LMmoto, Sohu, CarGC, Wodingche. Many thanks to Erik for the old brochure pics!